On Sunday I went up to Dublin to experience the All-Ireland Hurling Championship. Kilkenny made it by beating Tipperary and were set to face off against Galway, the team that gave them there only loss of the season.

The Game was at Croke Park and the place was electric. I had been to many professional games but I have never been to a game where everyone seemed to be yelling at every second of the game. Fans were not disappointed many feeling that it was the best hurling match that had been played in years. The game ended in a draw which means there will be a replay on the 30th. I don’t know if I’ll be lucky enough to attend the second game but I’ll be sure to get to a sports pub to enjoy the atmosphere.

Earlier this summer I had the opportunity to have a hurley made for me by Eric Roche. He showed me how to make one and explained to me all the aspects which make a good hurley a good hurley. You can see the process below.

Its that time of the year, time to core and top dress greens. At Mt. Juliet this happens twice a year, and accomplishes the same goals as most courses. The biggest difference is that this is all done by hand. Its a very labor intensive process but keeps equipment off of the greens and eliminates to downfalls of using the heavy equipment, such as unnecessary compaction and tight turning marks.

The process is fairly similar to any other course. First we cored the greens (with a Ryan aerator) and collected the cores (by hand). Next we set up a Ty-Crop full of topdress sand on the side of the green and used it to fill the wheelbarrows. then those would be wheeled out onto the green and dumped to have someone spread the sand. To topdress all 18 greens it took us one day. After that the greens were raked to help dry the sand and to do a bit of leveling. Then they were dragged in with the sand-pro and a drag mat.

I’m glad I can say I got to be a part of topdressing greens by hand. I had only heard of it from guys who had to do it before they could either afford, or had the equipment to do it. It’s definitely a rarity.

At Mount Juliet we have a weather recording station unlike any other I have seen. Every day at 10 a.m. various air, soil, and earth temperatures along with rain recordings are collected and sent into the meteorologist for tracking. Mount Juliet is one of the only golf courses in Ireland that is also a national weather station. Mount Juliet also has a rain recorder that tracks how much rain fell and at what time.

Last weekend I got to go see Hook Lighthouse. Its the oldest operational lighthouse in the world. I couldn’t have had better weather and the ocean was very calm and clear. Its located in Hook Head, County Wexford.

Another popular tourist attraction that I saw on the way back was the Loftus Hall. Its an old mansion that is said to be haunted. I’ve heard this story multiple times from many people; A visitor knocked on the door and the people took him in for tea and dinner. After dinner they were all playing a game of cards and one fell on the floor. As one of the servants went to pick up the card they noticed the visitor had hooves instead of feet, and instantly the “guest” jumped straight up through the roof. They say it was the devil, and the roof has been tried to be repaired many times but can’t.

I really enjoyed my visits to both of these places and highly recommend anyone in the area to go and check them out.

We’ve been busy at Mt. Juliet with hand topdressing tees. I’ve never hand top dressed anything before so this was another new experience for me. At Mt. J. we hand top dress greens, every other week (lightly) and tees after hollow coring. On Tuesday I was actually throwing the sand down with a shovel, following the aerator. We went fairly thick on the tees, and because of pop-up showers, it was difficult at times for the sand to dry out. After the sand was thrown down we raked them with a bunker rake, to help them dry and to help level them off a bit. after that we dragged them in with a sand pro pulling a drag mat. We did about half of the tee boxes on every hole and will do the remaining when the cored and top dressed ones heal up.